The 29th Annual Community Barbecue is prepped to bring back the fun of a traditional American hometown get-together. On Sunday the band will be playing, food will be cooking and the East Contra Costa Historical Society will pull out all the stops to provide a fun-filled, family day that will paint a picture of what life in historic rural Brentwood was like.

There will be activities for the children, cool farm equipment for the men, cooking demonstrations for food enthusiasts and tours of all the buildings on the property. An ideal setting to relax, get reacquainted and enjoy. Appreciating community is one of the historical society’s main goals in staging this event.

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“We have the Community Barbecue for old friends to meet together, talk and share a meal,” said Doreen Forlow, first vice president and social media publicity manager. “Sometimes you don’t see people you know too often so this is an opportunity for them to meet at least once a year and also for new members and those new to the community to meet others and get to know each other.”

Another purpose of the event is to fundraise, and the barbecue is a great opportunity to showcase the property and what’s been done in the past year.

The day starts off in true American fashion with a flag-raising ceremony by the Boys Scouts and the singing of the national anthem by locals Samantha and Olivia Bustos.

After that, guests are on their own to pick their pleasure, either touring the grounds and museum buildings, partaking of activities, or sitting on the lawn listening to the local Durt Band.

All the museums will be open with docents on hand to answer questions. That includes the 1850’s Byer Nail farmhouse, the toolshed, the Eden Plains one-room working schoolhouse equipped with period-appropriate primer books and quill pens, and the newly completed resource center.

Guests can check-out all the vintage tractors and equipment, many of which have been restored, including a fire engine from Byron and a horse-drawn Studebaker omnibus that has a top on it and open sides and was used to transport guests from the Byron railroad to Byron Hot Springs.

“A woman comes in and does Dutch-oven cooking over a fire pit, teaching people how to bake corn bread, and a working blacksmith will be doing demonstrations,” Forlow said. “We’ll have demonstrations of Hit/N/Miss engines for the guys and young boys; they’re really cool engines that only have one cylinder.”

The Mercantile store will be open for one of the first time, selling period merchandise.

Young ones will be kept busy gold panning with a sluice box, milking a wooden cow with working udders, climbing on a caboose and playing old-fashioned kids’ games.

Dinner will be served at 4 p.m., and the menu doesn’t change from year to year. Guests will enjoy tri-tip steak from a local meat company, beans, local corn, Rosie’s tomato salad made with local tomatoes, a roll and cookies for dessert. Beer, wine, water and soft drinks will be served.

Forlow looks forward to seeing people having a good time, meeting old friends and making new ones, listening to the live upbeat music and, for some, discovering something new.

“I sit and watch people, some are discovering this for the first time and that freedom you see when people are discovering, that ah-ha moment, you get to see that,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re there for the first time or you’ve been there many times, you will have a good time, you’ll laugh and smile and be glad you are there.”

The event is also important, as it is the main fundraiser for the historical society, which exists solely through fundraisers and from member and community donations.

After saving for 10 years, this year the organization was able to build the new resource center to house its vast collection of local history, including family files, more than 20,000 old photographs, many issues of past local newspapers and more.

Proceeds will also go toward the program that brings third-graders to the museum for a day and provides a local history curriculum unit for their teachers. On that day kids are immersed in the past for an entire day, they pump water, wash clothes, gather eggs, play games, make their own ice cream and butter, and have a lesson at the schoolhouse.

Preserving East Contra Costa’s history is important to Forlow and to the entire historical society, whose motto is “Preserving the past, preparing for the future.” They see the area, not as a large conglomerate, but as six separate communities — Bethel Island, Brentwood, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen and Oakley.

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“They are distinct communities that each have their own culture and their own history,” she said. “We want people who move here from other places to understand where they’re coming to.”

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